Summary of the work

CATEGORY CONTEXT The extremely stratified Pakistani society with a sizeable rural population means that there are several regional and community-based stakeholder groups that have their own inherent biases and agendas. To gain acceptance into the market as a truly Pakistani corporate entity, foreign companies like Telenor (second largest Telco of the country) had to speak to and resonate with all of them. However, rural Pakistan has always been a difficult market for western brands to gain acceptance in. Especially following the Danish/Norwegian religious caricature controversies, companies from Scandinavia in particular faced difficulty in gaining traction with the Pakistani population. As the only visibly ‘western’ telco-network at the time, this posed a very real 'glass-ceiling' on Telenor’s growth potential in the market against its competitors. The challenge for Telenor was to drive brand consideration and preference among national/regional stakeholders and gain a foothold in rural Pakistan through something beyond a mere communications initiative. CREATIVE CHALLENGE As a developing nation, Pakistan is beset by several intractable problems creating barriers to its population’s wellbeing. However, the issue that has become the root cause of most of these problems is the lack of documentation of the population. One’s national identity is crucial to social, political and economic inclusion and enables greater access to basic services. Despite that, over 60Million souls remain invisible to the state of Pakistan, devoid of basic human rights because of inaccessibility/complexity of the birth registration process. SOLUTION Pakistan boasts a healthy tele-density, over 80% people own a sim card and out of those over 80% have an Android mobile device. Together with Telenor, we capitalized on this by introducing a new media channel, an Android mobile Application called the ‘Digital Birth Registration (DBR)’, replacing the age-old complex and time-consuming paper-based registration process. Inspired by Pakistanis’ patriotism & by a desire to establish itself as a ‘Pakistani’ entity, we decided to anchor the initiative upon a nationalistic rhetoric, linking the identity of invisible Pakistanis with the identity of the country. Giving this humanitarian crisis a nationalistic spin ensured that the issue became one of national importance and of interest to every Pakistani. EXECUTION DBR piloted in Pakistan’s most populous provinces; Sindh & Punjab, contributing to the highest number of unregistered births. A door-to-door drive generated trial and word-of-mouth which peaked during months of high birth rate. An easy-to-use Android App (DBR) was given to authorized personnel, including health workers, marriage registrars etc. who moved from house-to-house to fill registration forms capturing key documents using a phone camera. Each application reached the authorities online and the subject received a certificate upon approval from the government. A nationwide amplification campaign was run to raise awareness for the issue and its severity amongst the general population. An extensive PR campaign was run in collaboration with some of the country’s leading news channels and publishers (Tribune, Dawn, SamaaTV). Telenor entered into long-term strategic partnerships with key influencers, donors, international rescue and relief NGOs and the government to spread the message across the country.